Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1887-02-19
OLIVE CULTURE.
EXTENT OF THE INDUSTRY IN
OTHER COUNTRIES.
Suggestions as to the Probable
Profits to be Derived Therefrom
in California.
u. P. whitney in Placer Herald. ]

1
advancement. Our people are enter
prising, more so than any other il
the world, but it is best that GU
energies are directed in the way TO Civ,
the best results. am inclined TO Che be
lief that those who give their best lands t.
the growing of the olive in this region viii
regret the action at some later day, although
believe our soil and climate are mos
favorable l do not believe the result.
will be so profitable as generally expected
The olive berry is most valuable as ar
article OF food, as well as its oil, but the
produce will be brought in competition
with the cheapest soil and labor in the
world, and with product which is not
limited, and can be laid down without in.
jury by transportation wherever a demand
exists. / have had occasion to observe
several times, upon travels through Italy
Spain and the southern part of France, the
enormous extent of the olive growth, and
the features connected with the cheap
gathering of the berries and the extraction
Of the oil.
In foreign countries good land is rarely
given for the trees. and have travelled for
hundreds of miles in dry and comparatively
arid tracts where the olive trees seemed 10
make continuous orchard, bearing with
out cultivation or care, as they probably
had for hundreds of years, giving yalu.
able food for the people. / have observed
that the margin of profit was so small
that able bodied men were seldom en-
| ployed in the gathering of the berries,
| which were picked and beat off the trees
and gathered from the ground by the very
old, or very young, or by females incapable
of working in the fields.
| One must be among the people there to
see how very poor they are, and how diff
| cult it is for them to more than make a
| bare living from the products of their ex-
tensive olive orchards, which bear without
cultivation of any kind. In the principal
| olive growing countries cultivation of the
| trees is not considered desirable, for expe-
| rience has fully demonstrated this, as well
as the fact that it is not necessary to give
| them a good alluvial soil. but to grow them
| upon rocky and comparatively barren
| tracts. so that they will be seen growing in
the most barren and fantastic places, and
often upon the hillsides where the scanty
soil is held up to the roots by stones piled
against them.
1t is wonderful to see how they thrive in
such places. and to consider that they have
been bearing fruit probably for hundreds
of years under such circumstances. have
large photograph of an old olive tree
which interested me very much, growing
in the northern part Of Italy near the,
Mediterranean. This tree was estimated to
be over 900 years old, and bore the marks
of having been burnt out number of
times. 1t presented a large mass of
gnarled roots and half trunk, twenty or
twenty-five feet high, and about fifteen feet
wide, through which in various places the
daylight could be seen by the splitting ND
of old age and the work of ancient fires
Yet, from the top of this gobiin-llke struct-
ure the 1usty-appearing limbs were loaded
with berries.
1t is not uncommon in southern France,
along the barren lands adjoining the MeGi-
terraneaD, to see Old olive orchards of
great extent. bearing average crops, where
the trees are SO aged and split up that one
could pass easily through the opening of
many of the trunks. The olives of the
Garden of Gethsemane. at Jerusalem, are
said to have been growing at the COM
mencement OF the Christian Era, and are
claimed to have been On the tax rolls over
thousand years
The labor of expressing the oil and pre-
pairing it for use is light, although requir-
ing care, and supplies the peasant and his
family with food in the berry, aud butter
and lard in the oil. With the oil he also
anoints his body as specific against fheu-
matism and the manyills that flesh is heir
of very old age: "Ah, be had plenty OF
good OIL" There is no doubt hut that the
use of good oil is highly beneficial, and its
daily and more general use in this country
should be encouraged. and this advantage
be gained by its production here. where
there viii be no difficulty i'll getting pure
article
1t may be claimed that profit is being
made By the few principal manufacturers
OF olive oil in the State at the present time,
which may be quite true; but that does
not prove that our best lands should be put
down to olives.
The price which has been paid for the
limited amount of good oil made in this
State has been fully double that which
good, sound foreign oil could be laid down
for, and good oil can be obtained here as
we'll as that which is badly adulterated.
A first-class oil can be laid down here at
81 per gallon, duty paid, and a gallon will
pretty nearly fill three-q quarters of dozen
of the bottles usually filed.
The picked olives, in bulk, can also be
laid down at very low price-very low, in
comparison with the fancy price paid for
single bottle. Besides the demand for
picked olives is a very limited one, and
even if the olive should be eaten generally,
the aggregate amount required would be
small, as it is taken only as relish, and
not as substantial article of food
The area of sterile lands in olives in the
old countries is immense. In Italy
alone the extent is given at 1,235, 900 acres,
and the oil product at 100000 gallons
while Spain, Portugal, France, Algeria,
Sicily, the Greek Islands, Syria, and
various other countries produce i'm
mense quantities, and upon lands which
are very cheap, and where labor is very
low. Freights are low now, and always
will be, besides the present United States
protective duty on oil is not likely to be ex
acted for long period.
The product of olive trees is greatly exag
gerated. Under favorable conditions they
may often yield largely. The highest esti-
mate of yield from the most prolific trees
in Italy is about three gallons of oil, while
the average yield of all the olive orchards
of Tuscany is given by the highest statisti-
cal authority as one-third of gallon of oil
to the tree. This includes the first, second
and third DRESSINGS, and only portion of
this result would consist of first-cass oil,
the second and third dressings being used
for soap, cooking and illuminating pur-
poses. Even petroleum, cheap and now
universally distributed as it is through the
world, has only partially succeeded in dis
placing olive oil as an illumination.
Even France, large producer as she is of
olive oil, and having large tracts of land
suitable for an increased olive area and
competing as she does to monopolize in all
products she can produce, does not at
tempt to supply her home demand, but
depends more largely than any other coun-
try upon foreign supplies. England takes
10000 tons of olive oil per annum, France
a vast deal more.
These considerations have brought me to
the conclusion that however favorable our
conditions may be for the growing of olive
trees, that our best lands should be put out
to choice fruit in which we can equal If